California

  • August 06, 2026

    Trump Again Targets Birthright Citizenship In 2 New Orders

    President Donald Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders that seek to limit automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S., after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a previous birthright citizenship executive order as unconstitutional.

  • August 06, 2026

    OpenAI Fights To Toss Apple's 'Rotten' Trade Secret Theft Suit

    OpenAI urged a California federal judge on Wednesday to toss Apple Inc.'s high-stakes trade secret theft lawsuit, arguing that the claims are premised on false characterizations and speculation, and "Apple's complaint is — to borrow its own phrase — 'rotten to its core.'"

  • August 06, 2026

    Meta Owes Another $567M To Address Harm To NM Kids

    Meta Platforms is on the hook for an additional $567 million after a New Mexico judge on Thursday determined that the Facebook and Instagram parent must take measures to protect its youngest users, following a jury's $375 million verdict that Meta hid the full scope of mental health harms its apps caused.

  • August 06, 2026

    Mark Zuckerberg's Foundation Can Arbitrate Gender Bias Suit

    A California federal judge on Thursday sent to arbitration claims that the foundation run by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan discriminated against women, saying the suit's sexual harassment claims weren't sufficiently severe or pervasive to invalidate the plaintiff's arbitration agreement.

  • August 06, 2026

    Ore. Judge Says DOD Wind Project Blockage Was Unlawful

    An Oregon federal judge on Thursday halted the U.S. Department of Defense's freeze of wind projects, finding renewable energy groups and environmental nonprofits are likely to succeed in showing the agency violated deadlines for reviewing the projects' impact on military readiness.

  • August 06, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Corona Clay Pollution Suit Over Creek Status

    A Ninth Circuit panel reversed a lower court's order denying a clay recycling manufacturer's request for a new trial after being found to have violated the Clean Water Act, saying significant changes to the law require another look at the case.

  • August 06, 2026

    KPMG Must Face Beefed Up Investor Suit Over SVB Failure

    A California federal judge allowed Norway's central bank and a Swedish public pension fund to lodge an additional claim against KPMG in their proposed securities fraud class action over Silicon Valley Bank's 2023 failure, saying they sufficiently alleged KPMG ignored red flags as SVB's auditor.

  • August 06, 2026

    Mich. Contractor Faces Class Claims For Unpaid Work Time

    A former commercial service technician has accused a Michigan-based industrial maintenance contractor in federal court of systematically removing hours from field employees' time records and failing to pay them for on-call duty, travel, missed meal breaks and other work.

  • August 06, 2026

    Ex-Girardi Atty Gets Probation For Keeping Silent On Theft

    A former Girardi Keese attorney was sentenced to one day time-served and two years of probation Thursday for staying quiet and failing to report disgraced plaintiff's attorney Tom Girardi's theft of millions of settlement dollars owed to Lion Air Flight 620 plane crash victims.

  • August 06, 2026

    9th Circ. Says EPA Air Quality Exception Pulled From 'Thin Air'

    The Ninth Circuit held Wednesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority when it approved a California air quality plan that allowed weaker backup pollution controls for the state's San Joaquin Valley, with a dissent calling it a "Kafkaesque" and "alarming" ruling.

  • August 06, 2026

    GOP Senators Float Repeal Of Calif. Vehicle Emissions Rules

    Four Republican senators on Thursday proposed revoking U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waivers granted to California for vehicle emissions regulations that have been in place for over a decade, following through on the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Golden State's authority to set stricter tailpipe emissions standards.

  • August 06, 2026

    Disbarred Atty And Son Must Face $17M SEC Fraud Suit

    A disbarred attorney and his son must face a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit alleging they defrauded investors out of more than $17 million by running a Ponzi-like scheme disguised as an investment company for a start-up content streaming app, with a California federal judge finding the SEC brought specific examples of the duo's "alleged misuse."

  • August 06, 2026

    Judge Sets Feb. Trial In States' Generics Price-Fixing Suit

    A Connecticut federal judge has set a February trial date on claims from dozens of state attorneys general that generic-drug makers conspired to artificially inflate the prices of generic topical drugs.

  • August 06, 2026

    Safeway Must Face Suit Over Advertised Wine Discounts

    A California federal judge has refused to toss out a proposed class action accusing Safeway of falsely advertising wine discounts after finding that customers could reasonably understand the price cuts were temporary, even though the grocer allegedly never reverted to the advertised non-sale price.

  • August 06, 2026

    Paramount Gets Private Warner Deal Challenge Tossed

    A California federal court has dismissed a case from consumers looking to undo Paramount's completed merger with Skydance and block its planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, finding they failed to show any concrete harm from the deals.

  • August 06, 2026

    Judge Certifies Disney 'Toy Story 3' TM Fight For Appeal

    A California federal judge has certified for interlocutory appeal a ruling refusing to dismiss trademark claims over the "Toy Story 3" character Lotso, saying the long-running case raises an unresolved question about whether corporate affiliates' merchandising can deprive movie distributors of First Amendment protection for a character name used onscreen.

  • August 06, 2026

    Goodwin, Covington Lead Braveheart Bio's $383M IPO

    Venture-backed biotechnology firm Braveheart Bio hit the public markets on Thursday after raising $383 million in its upsized initial public offering.

  • August 06, 2026

    Google, Meta, Tiktok Still Subject To Calif. Feed Algorithm Law

    A California federal judge has declined to block enforcement of a new California law that restricts personalized social media algorithm feeds, finding that Google, TikTok and Meta have failed to show the law infringes on their First Amendment rights.

  • August 06, 2026

    Tarsus Bets Up To $800M On Alkeus In Retina Therapy Push

    Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to acquire privately held Alkeus Pharmaceuticals Inc. for up to approximately $800 million, expanding the Irvine, California-based eye care company's pipeline into retinal disease with an experimental treatment for Stargardt disease.

  • August 06, 2026

    Veteran M&A Atty Named A&O Shearman's LA Office Head

    Allen Overy Shearman Sterling announced that an experienced mergers and acquisitions and private equity attorney from Sidley Austin LLP has joined the firm in Los Angeles, where she has also been named office managing partner.

  • August 06, 2026

    2025 Patent Litigation: A Year In Review

    The number of patent infringement lawsuits soared in 2025 as patent owners saw their fortunes change at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, where petitioners filed significantly fewer America Invents Act challenges. Meanwhile, most patent infringement suits were brought in the Eastern District of Texas, which had considerably more filings than the Western District.

  • August 05, 2026

    Unread Arbitration Emails Are Unenforceable, 9th Circ. Rules

    Arbitration agreements sent to workers aren't arbitration agreements assented to by workers, the Ninth Circuit held Wednesday, rejecting assertions from medical supplies giant Thermo Fisher Scientific that its arbitration-related emails — even if never read — sufficed to keep an ex-employee's proposed class action out of court.

  • August 05, 2026

    Fed. Gov't Held In Contempt By Judge Over ICE Phone Data

    A California district judge held the federal government in contempt in litigation over immigration arrest tactics for not complying with a discovery order requiring forensic imaging of phones used by agents during their operations, imposing a fine of $500 per day until the government complies with the order.

  • August 05, 2026

    CREXi Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Quinn Emanuel CoStar Row DQ

    Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. doesn't want to replace Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP after a California federal judge disqualified the firm from defending a copyright infringement suit by CoStar, seeking Ninth Circuit intervention and a pause on the district court case.

  • August 05, 2026

    Tesla Says Ky. Man's Full Self-Driving Fraud Suit Is Untimely

    Tesla has moved to nix a customer's proposed class action alleging the company duped him into thinking its vehicles can fully drive themselves, arguing in California federal court Tuesday that his claims are untimely and overlap with a similar consolidated consumer protection action.

Expert Analysis

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

    Author Photo

    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

    Author Photo

    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

    Author Photo

    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Sentencing Tips For Defending Crypto Conspiracy Cases

    Author Photo

    The sentencing of Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison for laundering money in a cryptocurrency conspiracy illustrates that defense attorneys representing clients in multidefendant crypto cases need to understand the mechanics of conspiracy liability, loss attribution and restitution exposure before they reach the sentencing table, says Joseph De Gregorio at Sentencing Advocacy.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

    Author Photo

    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

    Author Photo

    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

    Author Photo

    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Operational AI Washing: A New Securities Class Action

    Author Photo

    In rising claims of operational AI washing — plaintiffs alleging that artificial intelligence was invoked to explain corporate business decisions in ways that may obscure underlying financial distress — earnings calls, restructuring disclosures and board-level communications will serve as key defense evidence, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

    Author Photo

    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

    Author Photo

    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • 1st Surveillance Pricing Law In Md. Reflects Broader Scrutiny

    Author Photo

    A new law will make Maryland the first state to target data-driven or surveillance-based price manipulation, highlighting increased scrutiny from federal and state enforcement agencies and policymakers as they consider whether new laws are required to regulate dynamic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Understanding The Insider Trading Gap In Prediction Markets

    Author Photo

    While the first-ever insider trading indictment involving a prediction market — the recent prosecution of a service member involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro — comprised extreme facts and straightforward legal theories, future cases will test the bounds of insider trading law, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

    Author Photo

    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

    Author Photo

    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the California archive.